Walk on the Wild Side
by Miss. RoseGold
Summary: Dark AU - She used to be a good little girl, but one horrific event in her early twenties changed all that. She didn't have any mercy, only hate. There was no Buttercup anymore – only Mange. Slight Greens if you squint.


**Walk on the Wild Side**

**Summary:** _Dark __AU: She used to be a good little girl, but one horrific event in her early twenties changed all that. She didn't have any mercy, only hate. There was no Buttercup anymore – only Mange. Slight Greens if you squint. _

**Authors note:** Oh look, another dark-verse au where Buttercup slowly turns to the dark side. She's got just enough edge that they work with her.

I swear, I don't have it out for Blossom or Bubbles, ok?

Who remembers Buttercup's sensei from the show? Because he's mentioned in here too.

The Powerpuff Girls don't belong to me, and as always, they have human appendages.

The Greens are in their mid-twenties

_Walk on the Wild Side _lyrics do not belong to me, and rightfully belong to _Lou Reed. _

* * *

_Little Joe never once gave it away_

_Everybody had to pay and pay_

_A hustle here and a hustle there_

_New York City is the place where they said:_

_Hey babe, take a walk on the wild side_

_I said hey Joe, take a walk on the wild side_

_Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo_

.

XxX

Butch downed his glass of heavy alcohol and signaled for another, grunting as the bartender placed another large glass of Hennessey in front of him. He took the glass and turned around in his chair, observing the bar he was in.

The bar was a dimly lit thing located in the heart of the criminal underworld – deep underneath Townsville's streets. Only known criminals could find the place, it was exclusively by invitation only, and was typically used as a place for them to relax, which was why he was there.

He liked to wind down with a drink occasionally, and it was a nice way to meet up with some of the shadier occupants of the criminal hierarchy that preferred not to be in the spotlight like he and his brothers were occasionally – people he wouldn't see otherwise. As of a few years ago however, the bar had become a place for a new member of the criminal underworld to come and frequent. He was hoping to see said someone tonight.

Her name was Buttercup Utonium.

How she had turned from a hero to a villain that daily battered the city that she used to protect, was an interesting story.

He found his thoughts turning towards the once-superhero as he got halfway through his glass. Ah yes… Buttercup. But then again, she didn't go by that anymore. She hadn't gone by that name in a long time.

He snorted at the thought as he raised the glass to his lips before hesitating and setting it down on the bar counter behind him.

What a fucking turn of advents that had been when they had happened several years ago. It had blindsided him – thrown him completely off-guard as with everyone else. Then, only then, when she was consumed by rage – did he get to see the true power that she had hidden away for so long.

Turns out she _did _have a special power after all, besides that tongue of hers. Turns out the _Mange _persona of hers wasn't just a costume after all.

_Shadow manipulation and control_ were her specialties, and if that sounded cool to someone, then they clearly hadn't seen it in action.

It was fucking terrifying. It was almost art, watching her use it. Amazing and almost hypnotizing, but terrifying.

_She_ was terrifying.

Fuck, she even gave his one father, the Devil, a run for his money. The girl was almost a fucking demon with those powers on top of her normal ones, and she wasn't afraid to let other people know it.

She was the already the definition of power when she was a Powerpuff, but now with her heightened status in the criminal world, and without her holding back like she used to, she was the _epitome _of power.

He wouldn't say it to anyone else, but he's fucking proud of her.

She's finally coming into her own, and he's more then willing to stand by her and help push her further because he already knows she can go all the way. She's his counterpart after all, and if he can, then he knows that she certainly can.

Of course… none of this would have happened if her sisters hadn't been put out of commission.

They aren't dead, not really, but they might as well be from what he's heard, which hasn't been much. It's not exactly something that she talks about.

She used to be a good little girl. Everybody knew the story. But one horrific event in her early twenties changed all that. There had been an accident when she and her sisters had been fighting a monster the size of a skyscraper. It was strong. Far stronger than all the other beasts she and her sisters had clashed with over the years. She's admitted privately to him that she can't even remember clearly what had happened, or how they had finally managed to kill it, but when the dust had settled, she was the only one moving. That fight had taken everything out of her, but it had taken something more from her sisters. After that, she had changed overnight. She didn't have any mercy, only hate. There was no Buttercup anymore – only Mange.

Gone was the _Toughest Fighter_, enter the _Mange._

And she blamed everyone.

She blamed the city for not bothering to at least _try_ send aid to them when it became brutally apparent that they were struggling to take down the monster.

She blamed that stupid all-male "League of Superheroes" that only became buddy-buddy with her and her sisters _after_ the three of them had shown them up so badly that they had no choice but to accept them into their ranks, and still did absolutely nothing to help them out when it came to protecting Townsville or anywhere else for that matter. Now it was too late for them to do anything because her sisters were done, and she was the only one left to deal with the fallout that followed shortly after.

She blamed the politicians for not doing something sooner about the nuclear testing that she knew was going on over in the bay because _look what the fucking results were? Monster Isle didn't just appear overnight you stupid bastards. _

She blamed the _people_, who after years of abuse on her body and sometimes her mental state – still expected her and her sisters to jump into the fray and save them from every little thing that went wrong in their idealistic little world – when they couldn't be bothered to help save _them. _

Now, her sisters were out of the picture and she hasn't seen them since the accident.

Since Blossom and Bubbles weren't around to stop her, she took her frustrations out on everything else around her… which just so happened to be the city that she swore to protect and its inhabitants.

Not too long after the accident, and shortly after she started her rampage through the city and her transition into Mange, she found him. (Probably because she got tired of being alone, and he was damn near the only one who didn't bolt at the sight of her – but he wasn't about to fight with her after witnessing the sheer amount of destruction she had caused in the weeks following.) She had suck with him ever since, and he had taken her under his wing – much to the protest of many of the criminals in Townsville – and introduced her to the criminal underworld, where she had risen through the ranks at an inhuman speed. Literally.

She doesn't talk about her sisters, and its been a couple of years already. He wonders if they'd be ashamed of what she's become, and maybe that's what she thinks too, because he knows she hasn't bothered to find out where exactly they're being kept.

From what she's told to him, he's gathered that both are 'sleeping' away in tanks of Chemical X. Hidden away safe in an undisclosed location that she doesn't even know about. Suspended in an eternal coma, because her father can't bear to let them go. He just can't, it would kill him.

The visual that he gets is fucking depressing. He doesn't think that he'll ever tell Brick or Boomer the fate of their counterparts. They don't hate the girls like they did when they were younger. They don't like them either, but they have a mutual respect for them, and he knows his brothers would be furious if they found out, because _they deserved more than that._

The only set of doors leading into the bar slams open, and a sudden chill goes through the room – shadows creeping in and darkening the already dimly lit room unnaturally.

Speak of the devil.

In walks the young woman now known as Mange. She looks different now. In her days as a superhero, she had short dark hair, a smirk always plastered on red lips and bright green eyes, along with her normal leotard she wore when fighting monsters.

That's all been warped now.

She still has bright green eyes, but shadows are permanently etched into the skin around her eyes, making them appear much less welcoming then they used to be. Her lips are still full and red, but they're always set in a scowl. She hasn't smiled for _years_, and he's noticed.

Her normal leotard is gone, instead a mixture of black, spiked armor and spandex now fully covers her lean body. Her hands are completely covered by the stuff and she has literal claws for nails. _All the better to pluck your eyes out with my dear. _A tattered black cape made of shadows hangs off her shoulders and swirls around behind her – able to dissolve in seconds at her will.

Her hair – god her hair – as black as ebony, is so long now that it's past her ass. A tribute of sorts to her older sister he thinks.

It still throws him off every time he sees her, but it becomes her in a way. It's still just as wild and unkept as she is. When you're constantly blowing up monsters and other parts of the city out of sheer rage, it becomes messy quickly.

She is… Beautiful. She always has been. Her perfect bone structure and already striking features made her a modern-day sex symbol around these parts, but now she's beautiful in a different kind of way. A way that will kill you six different ways to Sunday without so much a batting an eye, mind you – but beautiful.

She doesn't even look at the rest of the big-name criminals in the bar with them, and instead walks straight towards him. He's not surprised. He's the only one she really talks to these days. Just because she's part of the criminal ranks now, doesn't mean that she likes conversing with the other big-shots here – a quirk from her former days as a hero, he guesses.

Not that she needs to even needs to acknowledge them. Not when they're all bowing down to her.

She takes a seat next to him, eyes glowing slightly. "Bourbon. Dry. On the rocks." She doesn't need to wait because it's already in front of her. Best not to keep her waiting.

Good thing too. Because she looks like she's had a hell of a day.

He turns to her, giving her his trademark grin. "Hey Butter-"

"Don't call me that."

See what he means? She hasn't gone by that name in years.

"Sunshine then," he waves away her annoyed look. He's maybe the only person in the world who can get away with calling her stupid nicknames. He doesn't refer to her as Mange… it's not her name, but she refuses to let him call her Buttercup anymore, so he'll just call her everything else he can think of. "I was hoping you'd come here tonight. You haven't shown up in a while."

She pauses. Looking at her drink. "I saw my father today."

Oh no. No wonder she looks drained. She still pops in to check on the crazy old man from time to time and their visits hardly ever go well.

To say that he doesn't approve of her current lifestyle choice would be an understatement. But then, neither of them is really surprised by that.

"How'd that go?" he finds himself asking, keeping his face neutral. He already knows the answer, but he's going to ask anyways. It's a formality at this point.

"He didn't call the cops on me this time. I think he's realized that they aren't going to come. They won't do anything if I'm there, even if I _am_ on their most wanted lists – he's my father, they know I won't hurt him." She looks up from her glass but it's not at him, it's not at anything. "They really don't want to fuck with me anymore. Not after the mess I made of the downtown last week."

"I see you avoided ripping apart the Mayor's office again. Getting sentimental, now are we?" he teases lightly but he wants to take his words back as soon as they're out of his mouth, because she looks dangerously close to hitting him.

"Not at all." She hisses, eyes glowing again. "But I don't blame him for what happened. He's a senile old man in his eighties. He shouldn't be in office, but I don't want to be the one who gives him a heart attack and puts him in the ground."

"Touché."

Both raven haired adults sip at their drinks in relative silence. Everyone else in the bar gives them a wide birth. No point in accidentally pissing off one or both of the green meta-humans, both whom have known violent streaks. Not when they're together.

On their own, they make people cower in fear.

When they're together, mass carnage soon follows.

Something that everyone here knows all too well.

She raises the glass to her lips and downs it before he can blink. She sets it down on the counter and taps it with those long claws of hers. The bartender sets another one in front of her immediately. She nods her thanks before picking the new glass up. He regards her carefully as she studies her drink in silence, wondering what was going on in that dark mind of hers.

She swirls the dark amber liquid around in her glass and smirks painfully. "I wonder what my sensei would think if he saw me now? He always said that I was good, and that protecting the world was my purpose in life." She looks at her reflection. He wonders if she hates what she sees. "Guess he was wrong."

"You were like, what, five? When you got sent to train with him?" he asked wrinkling his noes as he downs his own glass. "Are you really the same person you where when you were five? People change. That old monk can't predict the rest of your life. That'd be fucked up."

"Besides," he snaps his fingers and another glass appear before him. He raises it to her, smirking crookedly. "You get to hang with the baddest boy in the world now, and I know that's not as horrible as you want me to believe it is. You're just… walking on the wild side now."

She exhales through her nose, and a weak smile passes over her lips. For a moment she looks like she's trying to hold back a laugh. "Yeah. I guess so."

_Holy shit, that was the first time he had seen anything close to a smile from her in what? Years? He'd like to see it again. _

Glancing around the bar to make sure that no one was staring at them, (no one was – they knew better then to ogle at them, but he still wanted to check.) he leaned over slightly and put his hand overtop of her clawed, armored one. She raised an eyebrow and he shot her a tiny smile.

"Come on. Let's get out of here for a bit."

"And go where exactly?" her eyebrow inches a little further up her forehead.

"Wherever you want to go – pick a place. You and me, let's do something. What'll make you happy?"

He's not stupid. He knows what'll make her happy, but he can't give it to her. So, he'll try to give her the next best thing.

She closes her eyes and he knows that she's thinking of the same thing. After a moment she opens them and regards him with a cold stare.

"You know Monster Isle?"

"Who doesn't?"

"Do you want to make it sink into the ocean it with me?"

"If that will make you somewhat happy, then yes." And he means that.

"That's where the fucker who took my sisters out came from. So yes, that would make me 'happy'" she air-quotes. She means it too.

He abandons his glass on counter and stands up, offering a hand to her which she accepts much to his surprise. He pulls her to her feet, and they walk hand in hand out the door – ignoring the stunned expressions of some of the patron's faces that had noticed.

"Let's go fuck up some monster's day."

XxX

.

_Jackie is just speeding away_

_Thought she was James Dean for a day_

_Then I guess she had to crash_

_Valium would have helped that bash_

_She said, hey babe, take a walk on the wild side_

_I said, hey honey, take a walk on the wild side_

_Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo_


End file.
